The Fantasy Review’s list of 10 Classic Fantasy Books with Heroic Journeys.
Taliesin (The Pendragon Cycle #1) by Stephen R. Lawhead
From the blurb:
It was a time of legend, when the last shadows of the mighty Roman conqueror faded from the captured Isle of Britain. While, across a vast sea, bloody war shattered a peace that had flourished for two thousand years in the doomed kingdom of Atlantis…
The Secret Country (The Secret Country Trilogy, #1) by Pamela Dean
From the blurb:
Each vacation for the past nine years, cousins Patrick, Ruth, Ellen, Ted, and Laura have played a game they call the “Secret”—an invented, scripted world full of witches, unicorns, a magic ring, court intrigue, and the Dragon King. In the Secret, they can imagine anything into reality, and shape destiny…
The Bishop’s Heir (Histories of King Kelson, #1) by Katherine Kurtz
From the blurb:
For centuries, a powerful faction of the Holy Church in Gwynedd has been at war with the Deryni, the mysterious race whose magic is despised and feared by those who lack their remarkable arcane abilities. The bloodshed ended with the coronation of the popular young King Kelson Haldane, himself a possessor of Deryni magic—but the peace is short-lived. Dark rumblings of secession are coming from northern Meara as support strengthens for Caitrin Quinnell, the cunning and ruthless pretender queen…
The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1) by J.R.R. Tolkien
From the blurb:
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit…
The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1) by Stephen King
From the blurb:
Roland is a haunting figure, a loner, on a spellbinding journey toward the mysterious Dark Tower, in a desolate world which frighteningly echoes our own.
On his quest, Roland begins a friendship with a kid from New York named Jake, encounters an alluring woman and faces an agonising choice between damnation and salvation as he pursues the Man in Black…
The Fall of Atlantis (The Fall of Atlantis, #1-2) by Marion Zimmer Bradley
From the blurb:
A wounded prince washed up on a foreign shore becomes the focal point in an epic conflict between the nature-revering Priests of the White Robes and the power-exploiting Black Robes when the full extent of his powers comes to light…
Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1) by Diana Wynne Jones
From the blurb:
Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl’s castle…
God Stalk (Kencyrath, #1) by P.C. Hodgell
From the blurb:
Jame is a Kencyrath, the chosen people of the Three-Faced God, who fight the demonic being called Perimal Darkling. At the same time, she fights an internal battle for their honor because 3,000 years ago the leader of the Kencyrath betrayed his people to the Darkness for his own immortality…
Night’s Master (Flat Earth, #1) by Tanith Lee
From the blurb:
Rediscover master fantasist and World Fantasy Award winner Tanith Lee’s classic series, where demons and gods grant wonders and wreak havoc. Visit the Upperearth, where dwell the gods; the Underearth, the realm of nightmarish demons; the Innerearth, domain of the dead; and the Flat Earth itself, the home of mortals…
The Darkangel (Darkangel Trilogy, #1) by Meredith Ann Pierce
From the blurb:
The Darkangel, a vampire of astounding beauty and youth, can only summon his full power when he finds his 14th and final bride. But for Aeriel, whom he kidnaps to serve his brides, there is something about him–something beyond his obvious evil–that makes her want to save him rather than destroy him…
